Theos-Talk Archives (December 2002 Message tt00002)

Dec 28 2002

Dear Mic:

Re:	Concerning the study of Philosophy at the University level

At the risk of being thrown out of court, let me offer you to read if
you have not already a synopsis of Theosophical Philosophy. And ask
you to compare it with the description you make of philosophy taught
at college. I recall going through a somewhat similar experience
(40s) at Bombay University. I switched to Science.

This made sense to me and also gave me a "starting point." Inquire,
inquire and seek the source and base of any observation or statement
made. Continually ask WHY.

The theories and hypotheses are constructs. They are hopes and
imaginings. What trust can we give to their actuality?

We have to confine our study to observation and common sense, not
speculate on anything which we are not directly cognizant of. There
has to be honesty and sincerity, and rigorous logic.

Best wishes,

Dallas

see what you think of this:

--------------------
THEOSOPHY GENERALLY STATED

The claim is made that an impartial study of history, religion and
literature will show the existence from ancient times of a great body
of philosophical, scientific and ethical doctrine forming the basis
and origin of all similar thought in modern systems. It is at once
religious and scientific, asserting that religion and science should
never be separated. It puts forward sublime religious and ideal
teachings, but at the same time shows that all of it can be
demonstrated to reason, and that authority other than that has no
place, thus preventing the hypocrisy which arises from asserting
dogmas on authority which no one can show as resting on reason.

This ancient body of doctrine is known as the "Wisdom Religion" and
was always taught by adepts or initiates therein who preserve it
through all time. Hence, and from other doctrines demonstrated, it is
shown that man, being spirit and immortal, is able to perpetuate his
real life and consciousness, and has done so during all time in the
persons of those higher flowers of the human race who are members of
an ancient and high brotherhood who concern themselves with the soul
development of man, held by them to include every process of evolution
on all planes.

The initiates, being bound by the law of evolution, must work with
humanity as its development permits. Therefore from time to time they
give out again and again the same doctrine which from time to time
grows obscured in various nations and places. This is the wisdom
religion, and they are the keepers of it. At times they come to
nations as great teachers and "saviours," who only re-promulgate the
old truths and system of ethics. This therefore holds that humanity
is capable of infinite perfection both in time and quality, the
saviours and adepts being held up as examples of that possibility.

>From this living and presently acting body of perfected men H. P.
Blavatsky declared she received the impulse to once more bring forward
the old ideas, and from them also received several keys to ancient and
modern doctrines that had been lost during modern struggles toward
civilization, and also that she was furnished by them with some
doctrines really ancient but entirely new to the present day in any
exoteric shape. These she wrote among the other keys furnished by her
to her fellow members and the world at large. Added, then, to the
testimony through all time found in records of all nations we have
this modern explicit assertion that the ancient learned and
humanitarian body of adepts still exists on this earth and takes an
interest in the development of the race.

Theosophy postulates an eternal principle called the unknown, which
can never be cognized except through its manifestations. This eternal
principle is in and is every thing and being; t periodically and
eternally manifests itself and recedes again from manifestation. In
this ebb and flow evolution proceeds and itself is the progress of the
manifestation.

The perceived universe is the manifestation of this unknown, including
spirit and matter, for Theosophy holds that those are but the two
opposite poles of the one unknown principle. They coexist, are not
separate nor separable from each other, or, as the Hindu scriptures
say, there is no particle of matter without spirit, and no particle of
spirit without matter.

In manifesting itself the spirit-matter differentiates on seven
planes, each more dense on the way down to the plane of our senses
than its predecessors the substance in all being the same, only
differing in degree.

Therefore from this view the whole universe is alive, not one atom of
it being in any sense dead. It is also conscious and intelligent, its
consciousness and intelligence being resent on all planes though
obscured on this one. On this plane of ours the spirit focalizes
itself in all human beings who choose to permit it to do so, and the
refusal to permit it is the cause of ignorance, of sin. of all sorrow
and suffering.

In all ages some have come to this high state, have grown to be as
gods, are partakers actively in the work of nature, and go on from
century to century widening their consciousness and increasing the
scope of their government in nature.

This is the destiny of all beings, and hence at the outset Theosophy
postulates this perfectibility of the race, removes the idea of innate
un-regenerable wickedness, and offers a purpose and an aim for life
which is consonant with the longings of the soul and with its real
nature, tending at the same time to destroy pessimism with its
companion, despair.

In Theosophy the world is held to be the product of the evolution of
the principle spoken of from the very lowest first forms of life
guided as it proceeded by intelligent perfected beings from other and
older evolutions, and compounded also of the egos or individual
spirits for and by whom it emanates.

Hence man as we know him is held to be a conscious spirit, the flower
of evolution, with other and lower classes of egos below him in the
lower kingdoms, all however coming up and destined one day to be on
the same human stage as we now are, we then being higher still. Man's
consciousness being thus more perfect is able to pass from one to
another of the planes of differentiation mentioned. If he mistakes
any one of them for the reality that he is in his essence, he is
deluded; the object of evolution then is to give him complete
self-consciousness so that he may go on to higher stages in the
progress of the universe.

His evolution after coming on the human stage is for the getting of
experience, and in order to so raise up and purify the various planes
of matter with which he has to do, that the voice of the spirit may be
fully heard and comprehended.

He is a religious being because he is a spirit encased in matter,
which is in turn itself spiritual in essence. Being a spirit he
requires vehicles with which to come in touch with all the planes of
nature included in evolution, and it is these vehicles that make of
him an intricate, composite being, liable to error, but at the same
time able to rise above all delusions and conquer the highest place.

He is in miniature the universe, for he is as spirit, manifesting
himself to himself by means of seven differentiations. Therefore is he
known in Theosophy as a sevenfold being. The Christian division of
body, soul, and spirit is accurate so far as it goes, but will not
answer to the problems of life and nature, unless, as is not the case,
those three divisions are each held to be composed of others, which
would raise the possible total to seven. The spirit stands alone at
the top, next comes the spiritual soul or Buddhi as it is called in
Sanskrit. This partakes more of the spirit than any below it, and is
connected with Manas or mind, these three being the real trinity of
man, the imperishable part, the real thinking entity living on the
earth in the other and denser vehicles by its evolution.

Below in order of quality is the plane of the desires and passions
shared with the animal kingdom, unintelligent, and the producer of
ignorance flowing from delusion. It is distinct from the will and
judgment, and must therefore be given its own place. On this plane is
gross life, manifesting, not as spirit from which it derives its
essence, but as energy and motion on this plane. It being common to
the whole objective plane and being everywhere, is also to be classed
by itself, the portion used by man being given up at the death of the
body.

Then last, before the objective body, is the model or double of the
outer physical case. This double is the astral body belonging to the
astral plane of matter, not so dense as physical molecules, but more
tenuous and much stronger, as well as lasting. It is the original of
the body permitting the physical molecules to arrange and show
themselves thereon, allowing them to go and come from day to day as
they are known to do, yet ever retaining the fixed shape and contour
given by the astral double within.

These lower four principles or sheaths are the transitory perishable
part of man, not himself, but in every sense the instrument he uses,
given up at the hour of death like an old garment, and rebuilt out of
the general reservoir at every new birth. The trinity is the real
man, the thinker, the individuality that passes from house to house,
gaining experience at each rebirth, while it suffers and enjoys
according to its deeds--it is the one central man, the living
spirit-soul.

Now this spiritual man, having always existed, being intimately
concerned in evolution, dominated by the law of cause and effect,
because in himself he is that very law, showing moreover on this
plane varieties of force of character, capacity, and opportunity, his
very presence must be explained, while the differences noted have to
be accounted for.

The doctrine of reincarnation does all this. It means that man as a
thinker, composed of soul, mind and spirit, occupies body after body
in life after life on the earth which is the scene of his evolution,
and where he must, under the very laws of his being, complete that
evolution, once it has been begun. In any one life he is known to
others as a personality, but in the whole stretch of eternity he is
one individual, feeling in himself an identity not dependent on name,
form, or recollection.

This doctrine is the very base of Theosophy, for it explains life and
nature. It is one aspect of evolution, for as it is reembodiment in
meaning, and as evolution could not go on without reembodiment, it is
evolution itself, as applied to the human soul. But it is also a
doctrine believed in at the time given to Jesus and taught in the
early ages of Christianity, being now as much necessary to that
religion as it is to any other to explain texts, to reconcile the
justice of God with the rough and merciless aspect of nature and life
to most mortals, and to throw a light perceptible by reason on all the
problems that vex us in our journey through this world.

The vast, and under any other doctrine unjust, difference between the
savage and the civilized man as to both capacity, character, and
opportunity can be understood only through this doctrine, and coming
to our own stratum the differences of the same kind may only thus be
explained. It vindicates Nature and God, and removes from religion
the blot thrown by men who have postulated creeds which paint the
creator as a demon.

Each man's life and character are the outcome of his previous lives
and thoughts. Each is his own judge, his own executioner, for it is
his own hand that forges the weapon which works for his punishment,
and each by his own life reaches reward, rises to heights of knowledge
and power for the good of all who may be left behind him. Nothing is
left to chance, favour, or partiality, but all is under the governance
of law. Man is a thinker, and by his thoughts he makes the causes
for woe or bliss; for his thoughts produce his acts. He is the
centre for any disturbance of the universal harmony, and to him as the
centre, the disturbance must return so as to bring about equilibrium;
for nature always works towards harmony.

Man is always carrying on a series of thoughts, which extend back to
the remote past, continually making action and reaction. He is thus
responsible for all his thoughts and acts, and in that his complete
responsibility is established; his own spirit is the essence of this
law and provides for ever compensation for every disturbance and
adjustment for all effects.

This is the law of Karma or justice, sometimes called the ethical law
of causation. It is not foreign to the Christian scriptures, for both
Jesus and St. Paul clearly enunciated it. Jesus said we should be
judged as we gave judgment and should receive the measure meted to
others. St. Paul said: "Brethren, be not deceived, God is not
mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth that also shall he reap." And
that sowing and reaping can only be possible under the doctrines of
Karma and reincarnation.

But what of death and after? Is heaven a place or is it not?
Theosophy teaches, as may be found in all sacred books, that after
death the soul reaps a rest. This is from its own nature. It is a
thinker, and cannot during life fulfill and carry out all nor even a
small part of the myriads of thoughts entertained. Hence when at
death it casts off the body and the astral body, and is released from
the passions and desires, its natural forces have immediate sway and
it thinks its thoughts out on the soul plane, clothed in a finer body
suitable to that existence.

This is called Devachan. It is the very state that has brought about
the descriptions of heaven common to all religions, but this doctrine
is very clearly put in the Buddhist and Hindu religions. It is a time
of rest, because the physical body being absent the consciousness is
not in the completer touch with visible nature which is possible on
the material plane. But it is a real existence, and no more
illusionary than earth life; it is where the essence of the thoughts
of life that were as high as character permitted, expands and is
garnered by the soul and mind.

When the force of these thoughts is fully exhausted the soul is drawn
back once more to earth, to that environment which is sufficiently
like unto itself to give it the proper further evolution. This
alternation from state to state goes on until the being rises from
repeated experiences above ignorance, and realizes in itself the
actual unity of all spiritual beings. Then it passes on to higher and
greater steps on the evolutionary road.

No new ethics are presented by Theosophy, as it is held that right
ethics are for ever the same. But in the doctrines of Theosophy are
to be found the philosophical and reasonable basis for ethics and the
natural enforcement of them in practice. Universal brotherhood is
that which will result in doing unto others as you would have them do
unto you, and in your loving your neighbour as yourself--declared as
right by all teachers in the great religions of the world.

WILLIAM Q. JUDGE

December 1893 L.

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-----Original Message-----
From: Mic Forster [mailto:micforster@yahoo.com]
Sent: Saturday, December 28, 2002 12:41 AM
To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: Theos-World Re: Alleged certificate re hermaphroditism
TYPO CORRECTED AND CLARIFICATION

Thanks Etzion, just making sure we are all still on
the ball. But I'm a scientist at heart and before I
can be convinced of something I really need tangible
proof (well something close to tangible anyway). At
the beginning of this year at university I decided to
do some extra subjects and consequently I undertook
philosophy. Well I enjoyed the lectures but after one
tutorial I chucked it in with sheer frustration. Those
guys couldn't make up their minds on anything!!!